Stumbling to his feet, Kenobi moved slowly to the bridge of his ship, obviously guarding his wounded left side. Padmé reached out to stop him, but two pirates abruptly grabbed her and ushered her back to private quarters, where she paced behind locked doors.
"Star Destroyer straight ahead Captain."
"Head 40 degrees to that sector." His bloodied hand pointed to the navigational screen.
"But sir, that's the Otora Nebula. We won't be able to see a thing."
"That's right. Neither will they."
A blast from the Destroyer caught their rear quarter, jarring the ship, its shields weakening in response.
"Best speed Gavin." He stared intensely at the young navigational officer, who shook his head in understanding of the danger of the situation.
The ship rocked under more attack.
"Shorter range fighters approaching Captain, one of them Lambda class."
Maul. If it were just the short-range fighters alone, he would turn on them and easily destroy them all, but he knew he was outgunned by the Star Destroyer that was bearing down upon them. The hits they had already taken had weakened the rear deflectors by twenty percent. He knew his only option at the moment was retreat. If only he could get to the large nebula in time. Then, Maul would be unable to scan for him, and the Destroyer wouldn't be able to see him either, giving them just enough time to formulate an escape and repair the damage to the ship.
"Once we reach the cloud, head 30 degrees port. Maintain speed and then back off and turn 10 degrees starboard. Adjust course and speed as necessary. Understand?" His words were halted and his breath was now coming out in pants.
"Aye, Captain."
Yet another blast rocked the ship before they entered into the dense purple and red gaseous nebula.
Once assured they were safely inside the cloud, Kenobi finally gave into the pain searing through his body and slumped unconscious to the deck.
Her agitated pacing and nail-biting was halted by the whoosh of the opening door. Four pirates carried in the unconscious body of their captain, moved across the room and laid him down upon the bed. They began peeling back his clothing, rather roughly, Padmé noted, and she stepped forward and stopped them with a touch of her hand. "I'll tend to him."
Three of the pirates gave each other questioning looks, but Jarell, who knew what had happened back at the Seralia space port nodded approvingly and motioned the pirates from the room. With a glance back at Padmé before leaving himself, he seemed to be struggling with words. "Take care of him." His voice cracked and he cleared his throat. "I owe him my life."
Padmé nodded before the man spun and left the room. She turned back to the damaged body lying on the bed and began to gently peel away the burned material from his shoulder. She winced at the badly burned and bleeding skin. Removing the rest of his upper garment, she left for the bathing room and returned with several warm wet towels, and began to gently dab at the wound. The blaster burn was bad, but not as bad as it had first looked. Now that the char was removed and the blood cleared away, it appeared that the shot had not gone too deep. What she had thought was a rather large wound, was simply an extension of the healing one that she had made herself, when she had stabbed him. She winced again at the memory.
Heading into the living area, she began emptying drawers onto the top of the desk. There had to be some sort of medical supplies here. She opened the bottom right drawer and removed a large black box. She opened it and was quite surprised at its contents. No time for questioning why a pirate would have one of those, she decided.
She set it aside and continued rummaging through the desk. Ah! Here it is. She opened a wooden box, whose lid was carved with a snake, took it back to the bed and dumped it. Plucking up two large bacta patches, her teeth tore through the packaging and she carefully placed the bacta over the oozing wound. She sighed as immediately the medicine began working, the redness surrounding the injury receding dramatically.
Satisifed that she had done all she could do, she moved to his uninjured side and without hesitation, lay herself next to him on the bed, her head lying on his shoulder, her hand shakily reaching across to be placed on the steady rise and fall of his chest. Matching her breathing with his own, even though her thoughts drifted to the gravity of their situation, she felt a calm contentment steal over her and soon drifted off to sleep.
She was awakened some time later by the sounds of moaning and opened her eyes to see beads of sweat on Obi-Wan's brow. His head was thrashing to and fro. She reached up to feel his forehead for any sign of fever. There wasn't any. He was obviously having a nightmare. She was about to attempt to wake him when he began muttering. "No...you...you bastard...you can't take them...Maul!...you monster!"
"Obi-Wan." She shook him gently and then more firmly. "Obi-Wan!"
Someone was calling him by his first name. Who was that? Nobody had called him that in years. It was a female voice, far off in the distance.
"Obi-Wan, wake up."
The voice was much closer now. His eyes opened slowly and blinked twice. He didn't think he would ever get used to waking up to a vision such as the one before him. It had happened twice now, and he intended on it happening every day for the rest of his life, if he had anything to do about it. Why was she looking at him like that, and why was she dabbing his head with a cold wet towel?
He leaned up on his elbows,grimacing slightly. Ah. The blaster wound. Surprisingly it didn't hurt that much any more. He leaned his head down to look at it, but found it covered with bacta patches. He turned an incredulous look at Padmé who still sat next to him on the bed with that wonderfully wistful look on her face.
"You passed out on the bridge. Jarell brought you here. I applied some bacta. It seems to be working, even though it was a little outdated."
"Thank you." It was a genuine response. He didn't know what else to say.
"While you were sleeping, you seemed to be having a nightmare. That's why I woke you." She noticed his head dropped at her comment and his eyes closed tightly. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really."
Padmé didn't mean to pry, but she found herself caring very much and wanting to help ease any type of suffering he may be enduring, physically or mentally. She had done all she could for the physical part. Now, if she could only help him with the mental.
"You were talking in your sleep. You said the name, Maul. Whom did he take?"
His eyes opened and focused on her then, a momentary intensity darkening them, until softening once more. His voice was hushed and emotional when he spoke. "My family...my friends. When I was a boy on Bandomeer, the Empire invaded and took everyone over the age of 15 as slaves to work in the mining colonies. My mother, my father and my older brother were taken. I was left alone. Many of my friends were killed trying to defend their families. Maul was the general in command at the time. I watched him strike many of my friends down with that red blade of his."
He stopped momentarily, drawing several deep breaths, looking up toward the ceiling of the room as if attempting to control his emotions, and then continued. "I vowed that when I was old enough, I would make the Empire pay. It's why..."
"It's why you became a pirate." Padmé offered in complete understanding now of the man who sat before her, the notorious, rebellious enemy of the Empire known as Obi-Wan Kenobi. The man she now knew she loved.
"It was the easiest and quickest way for revenge."
Her chest heaved slightly as his hand reached across and grasped hers.
"Padmé, I've never taken a life in cold blood. I would never..."
"I know." She smiled at him and gripped his hand tightly. Their eyes met in a steady compassionate gaze, expressing all of the feelings shared that neither of them were yet willing to admit out loud.
With a slight nod of his head, he began to move off of the bed. "I need to get to the bridge. We can't stay hidden in this nebula forever."
But before he turned away, the back of his hand smoothed a gentle caress across her cheek.
The door slid shut, unbolted this time, she noticed, and Padmé flung herself backward onto the bed in a short moment of utter bliss.